Are you looking for a straight forward stopwatch - here it is.
Are you looking for a more sophisticated timer - here it is.
To get a brief intro how to use this simple event timer, please see next post.

Ok, so you want to use pTiming to more than just a ordinary stopwatch.

The main window - timestamp manager is rather useless before the actual competition. Now, we have to registrate some participants. Be aware that this can be done weeks before the event. - And it can be done now and then, when the registrations comes to your hands.

Now, simply add your participants. pTiming will add a ID (startnumber) and start-time based on the delay value (default is 30 sec). If you want to edit any added participant, just click on it in the list, and you get editable options.

At the end all participants might be shuffled to a complete start list. See button at bottom. You might not understand the reason why adding start time and id, when later shuffle. The reason is simply that you CAN manually set start times. This is handy in a pursuit. Please remember to save your changes for backup reasons.

This simple startlist-generator randomize participants and groups the classes. You can manually change the first starttime in every class. When you are satisfied with the startlist, you should distribute it to the organizations. First you should sort list by organization. For electronic distribution, just attach the pTiming *.csv file. This is a common format, and supported by 'all' spreadsheets. For printing, exported it, and gnumeric (default spreadsheet) will open with your list. Make your layout, and print. To get a startlist for the actual event, sort by starttime

Now, when startlist is ready, competition can start.
Let's take a look at the main module - the Timer. This includes the timestamp manager (main window) and the timer configuration box.

First look at the timer configuration box. This box sets the behavior of the timer.
- As you see, you can choose whether use hundredths or not. This will not affect the visual clock. This will never show hundredths. But the internal clock calculates hundredths if wanted. You can change this setting without resetting timer.
- The timer starts immediately after user starts pTiming. This is convenient for simple use, but not when setting pTiming up for an event. The countdown utility can be set to whatever time before the actual competition begins. This makes it also easy to synchronize several pc that should work together during the competition.
- pTiming may beep at every defined start-time. You can change this setting without resetting timer.

During the first stage of the competition, pTiming acts like a countdown clock and a startclock. The participants will benefit of seeing the time status, so you should switch to 'fullscreen' (else you got a unique pc for that.)

The participants is all started, and we go back to the main window.

Press the big button to store a timestamp for a participant. If an ID (start number) is set in the black field at left, pTiming will search through the startlist for more info about the human behind the ID. If more than one comes at the same time, this might be hard. Forget the ID, and edit the list afterwards. If you want to track laptimes, go ahead adding timestamps.

When everyone is done with the race, we want a result-list. Export list to speadsheet, and it will order results in classes. Lap info will also be shown.

I just installed Ptimer and gave the simple alarm timer a quick try. I set it to alarm after a minute. It counted down for about 3 beeps before reaching zero and starting to count up. It started making a faint beeping sound several seconds before it got to a minute, and didn't get any louder when it did reach the alarm setting.

May I suggest that the Ptimer tab named "Clock" be changed to "Alarm?" That seems more straightforward to me.

I don't remember which version of Puppy I'm using. I think it's either Wary or Lucid. My /etc/puppyversion says 246

G'day zigbert,
Thank you for putting this useful package together. I hope I'm understanding what to do - apologies if I'm doing something incorrectly in regards to the following.

I have tried it on my Medion 8818 desktop.
This computer has a sound problem with kernels 2.6.33 or newer - continual stutter - so I'm using it with a Frugal Insidious (2.6.32.26).

A few questions or problems so far.

When I set the Reset Timer > Countdown to say 10 seconds so the first start at 0:0:0 will get the warning beeps, it is usually OK. But if I use the Set Timer again and reset the countdown, the display goes from -1:0 second to +1:0 second (no 0:0:0 displayed) and there is no start beep. It seems a bit unpredictable.

Could there be a <Start pTiming> button to hit/press instead of having the timer begin as soon as pTiming opens?

Could the computer clock time be displayed on the main display somewhere (in a small box using a different font colour, perhaps) as well as the pTime? In my events, we make start lists according to a clock time not a 0:0:0 so the option for displaying the clock time would be appreciated.

On my 19" LCD monitor, the full screen display cuts off the seconds. So only the hour and minute is seen. It may be OK on a laptop.

For the orienteering events I get involved in organising, I'd see two pTiming computers being needed - one for the Start, and one for the Finish. Rarely are the Start & Finish close together so that one pTiming would be enough to do both functions. Working pTiming as a simple Finish timer, would it be possible to configure or optionally register every TimeStamp press as a finish time instead of a LapTime? Exporting results would then only be as a list of the finish order and each finish time. pTiming could replace a thermal-paper printing clock we use sometimes (when SI is not available), with each finisher being given a finish order number that we relate back to the start time for the finisher, and then can work out the time taken.

When I set the Reset Timer > Countdown to say 10 seconds so the first start at 0:0:0 will get the warning beeps, it is usually OK. But if I use the Set Timer again and reset the countdown, the display goes from -1:0 second to +1:0 second (no 0:0:0 displayed) and there is no start beep. It seems a bit unpredictable.

Yes, I have seen this behavior, but hasn't got it reproduced properly to detect its reason. Well, the obvious reason is that countdown and 'countup' have 2 different counter-engines, so 0 is the stage to switch engine. I have just made the first start at 00:00:30 or something else. I will look into this.

davids45 wrote:

Could there be a <Start pTiming> button to hit/press instead of having the timer begin as soon as pTiming opens?

No! If user accidently click that button he would ruin the event timing.

davids45 wrote:

Could the computer clock time be displayed on the main display somewhere (in a small box using a different font colour, perhaps) as well as the pTime? In my events, we make start lists according to a clock time not a 0:0:0 so the option for displaying the clock time would be appreciated.

I think it would be easier to offer an option to use day-time instead of P-time. I don't think it would be too hard to implement. The only problem that I immediately see, is when competition runs over midnight. The timer wouldn't show 00:00:00 but 25:00:00

davids45 wrote:

On my 19" LCD monitor, the full screen display cuts off the seconds. So only the hour and minute is seen. It may be OK on a laptop.

Please help me to find a proper size.
In line 135 of /usr/local/ptiming you'll find

Code:

Mono bold '$((HEIGHT/3))'"

Please try to increase 3 to a number that fixes your problem. In this case it must be an integer, but I could easily rewrite the code to accept decimals. Another solution would be to ship a better mono font to ensure that it works equal on all systems. Pwidgets uses monofonto which is a really nice mono font. But it requires some extra space, and I am strict when it comes to kb

davids45 wrote:

would it be possible to configure or optionally register every TimeStamp press as a finish time instead of a LapTime? Exporting results would then only be as a list of the finish order and each finish time. pTiming could replace a thermal-paper printing clock we use sometimes (when SI is not available), with each finisher being given a finish order number that we relate back to the start time for the finisher, and then can work out the time taken.

Maybe I don't understand you correct, but I don't see any reason why the lap information give trouble. It is just to remove 1 column in the exported file. In pTiming (now) every timestamp is finish time. Adding lap-info, we have the possibility to redefine finish time to be the next timestamp as well.

I am thankful for your feedback. It wouldn't be possible to improve this app without inbound testing.
Sigmund_________________Stardust resources

Wouldn't it be wise to restrict the tapping of the spacebar to just a key
function like timing a lap?

When the program is full screen shouldn't the only way to get out of
full screen be to tap on ESC.

What about the following situation:

A runner wants to time his lap times while running a course.
He doesn't want to pay a coach to do this so he does it himself.
That's why a quick tap on the spacebar each time he passes the
starting line of the course is the best input method.

It would be pretty awkward to use a mouse or trackpad during a race,
so I have a suggestion.

To input a particular participant finishing a lap,
the judge would type in the participants number, then tap the
spacebar.

What are you pointing at. I haven't defined any hot-keys. It is only those which already is gtk builtin.

don570 wrote:

When the program is full screen shouldn't the only way to get out of
full screen be to tap on ESC.

Exit fullscreen with ESC would be great. - If just anyone could tell me how to do it

don570 wrote:

What about the following situation:

A runner wants to time his lap times while running a course.
He doesn't want to pay a coach to do this so he does it himself.
That's why a quick tap on the spacebar each time he passes the
starting line of the course is the best input method.

It would be pretty awkward to use a mouse or trackpad during a race,
so I have a suggestion.

To input a particular participant finishing a lap,
the judge would type in the participants number, then tap the
spacebar.

If you accept to use enter button instead of space, this already works. The only thing the runner have to do before start is to click in the black field to give it the focus.

Thank you for continuing to develop this package.
I can confirm the full screen font is fixed in v0.2.

By slightly resizing (smaller) the main pTiming display and putting it to the top of the monitor screen, I can see this and the full screen clock as "background" at the same time. If this was ever useful(?), could the full screen big numbers be made to run across the lower half of the display instead of the centre, so giving more space to list recent button press data? Or just resize the displayed time window of pTiming to be as big as possible then fit the rest of the information around that?

Sorry for my idle thoughts above, I will download v0.3 and test.

I'm still hoping to find a way to set up pTiming as a very simple finish timer/recorder so that just the finish times are exported in button-press order. With v0.2, each press of the button is assumed to be a Lap time unless a competitor number is pre-entered in the special window. So the export puts all these '0' presses on a single line/cell for competitor '0'. I would like a spreadsheet file that lists in columns:

Press Number Time pressed (then the other column headers for later "off-line" adding/matching competitor details)

In the competitions I have in mind, matching the competitor number before finishing is not easy as we don't wear chest numbers and only know who had just finished when the control card is handed in after the button has been pressed.

Of course, I'm sure you know this is already done with, for example, the SportIdent timing system of memory sticks, writers and readers as well as computers, but I think pTiming will be for very good for simpler event situations.

In the competitions I have in mind, matching the competitor number before finishing is not easy as we don't wear chest numbers and only know who had just finished when the control card is handed in after the button has been pressed.

But you can still edit the ID number after the button has been pressed. Click on the line that shows the timestamp, and you can edit in-place.

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